begins driving an old green Vega (the color of this page).
The police of the greater metropolis LeClaire area (Iowa, eastern side) unwittingly shove Pat
on his way towards fame by issuing him three (3) speeding tickets within a few weeks of each other.
A 1976 Vega being caught "speeding" sounds ironic, until you realize the speed trap was in a 25 MPH zone.
Pat has a good sense of humor, though, and christened himself "Enzio Bodini".
"Enzio Bodoni" is actually the name of a race driver in a Garfield strip,
and may have been the name of a real Indy driver. I dunno.
Pat was blessed with a caring family. Especially his brother, David, who reasoned that
if a picture is worth a thousand words, a cartoon should be worth the dozen or so it
would take to honor Pat's achievements. Using nothing but a bit of scratch paper and
an old eraserless pencil, he catapulted his brother's alter-ego (and an obscure race
car driver) from anonymity into near anonymity.
And Now, Immortalized in Graphite...
 The original Enzio
Bodini had dramatic special effects, making Enzio's Vega appear fast and
powerful.
|  The unseen side of
car shows -- Unseemly-Vega discrimination. (It's not the discrimination
that's unseemly.) |
 Herby slums.
|
Soon, Dave got a speeding ticket of his own. Since Dave had long
learned
to laugh at himself, he worked himself into the comics as
"Guido",
Enzio's brother (of course) as well as ersatz navigator...
 Some folks would
criticize the depiction of Iowa as ultra-rural. Some folks are hicks.
|  Guido, the
part-Huckowee navigator, was officially, belatedly, introduced. |
 Enzio and Guido abandon
realism for a romp in space...
|  One gets the feeling
that Enzio's navigator didn't know what in the hell he was doing. |
 "Mugger" was part of a
brilliant sales campaign for Vegas, demonstrating that they were
essentially theft-proof.
|  Note that the djinn is
made of suspiciously blue smoke. . . |
 Sort of a "Speed
Racer" meets "Red Green" concept.
|  The artist takes a
cheap shot at his neighbors to the North. |
 An tribute to an obscure
Steve Jackson game.
|  Where's Goldie Hawn?
|
 The humor is in the
(little) details. |
 Censors would have
blocked this for language, but who doesn't like seeing a Vega in hell?
|  Guido and Enzio used
stunt doubles in this scene. |
 Peyote may have
played a role in this drawing's creation.
|  Enzio bought
a Rambler for the better tape-deck. This is a real curve, by the way,
where Guido "traded in" his own first car. |
 With the Rambler,
Enzio's taste turned towards heavier metal. |
 This picture was a
Christmas gift to Guido's mom, Mom "Mom" Bodini.
|  The introduction of
Luigi "Ouini" Bodini (purely nepotistic). Note the clever use of a
plantain in construction of the hut. |
 "Enzio" moved on from
speeding to an equally frustrating "drive into a snow-filled ditch, get
towed out by a neighbor" habit.
|  This writer's absolute
favorite. Here, Enzio owns a Rampage. You want weird? this picture
was found years later on the web. |
 Color was used for
the first and last time to draw gaudy polyester. Scares off dinosaurs,
you know.
|  Enzio seems bitter,
but he had valid points. |
 Cincinatti had too
high a production cost. |
For whatever reason, others tried to capture the essence of
the Bodini
drawings. History shows it was better left to the professionals.
 An inspired but
unsigned Bodini knock-off by Dave's roomie from Bradley U.
|  Obviously a fake --
the Vega had no muffler. |
This page last updated 6/25/03.